It’s New Year’s Eve at the Jefferson
Club, a luxurious private ski resort in
the mountains of southwestern Montana.
Some of the world's wealthiest business
leaders and an influential U.S. senator
are gathered for a private party. As
expensive champagne flows and
multibillion dollar deals are sealed,
the celebration is shattered by
black-hooded intruders – members of a
well-armed militia called the Third
Position Army – who threaten to put the
revelers on trial for crimes against
humanity, live on the Internet, for the
world to see. (Visit
www.thirdpositionjustice.net)
Thus begins
TRIPLE CROSS,
internationally bestselling author Mark
T. Sullivan's heart-stopping thriller
from St. Martin’s Press in which
capitalism and antiglobalism collide
with deadly consequences. With a perfect
blend of suspense, dark humor and
explosive action, this skillfully
crafted novel raises
compelling questions about who the real
criminals are, in a world where
financial markets are manipulated on an
unfathomable scale and a powerful few
profit at the expense of many.
“I do not think that capitalism is
inherently evil, but I came to believe,
when I was researching and writing
TRIPLE CROSS, that there
were excesses going on that could not
only taint the reputation of capitalism,
but buckle the markets,” Sullivan says.
“That’s exactly what happened last
September, when the market crashed and
we found out that people were playing
hard and fast with the rules,” he
continues. “The so-called ‘Smart People’
thought that there were no repercussions
to their strategies as long as they made
money. Obviously, their unethical and
sometimes illegal business practices had
widespread and brutal consequences.
People lost homes, their jobs, and their
savings. Kids stopped attending the
colleges they wanted to attend.
Philanthropic organizations went
bankrupt and shut their doors. Global
investors began to rightly look at the
American markets and the institutions
around them with a skeptical and
jaundiced eye.”
In
TRIPLE CROSS, Sullivan
details financial techniques used by
many high-stakes investors before the
crash. He paints a portrait of how vast
fortunes are sometimes made – or lost –
with the click of a computer mouse or a
shrewdly timed phone call. An
award-winning newspaper and magazine
journalist who once covered the futures
market in Chicago for Reuters Ltd,
Sullivan was already familiar with
market manipulation. He further
researched his subject by consulting
with investment professionals, who
“gamed” with him to create the financial
scenarios that drive the story.
Although
TRIPLE CROSS seems,
in some ways, to parallel recent world
events, Sullivan says that the
similarities are purely coincidental. He
finished writing his final draft nine
months before the Wall Street meltdown,
eleven months before terrorists seized
two luxury hotels in Mumbai, India, and
twelve months before the Bernard Madoff
investment scandal came to light.
“There is a place in Montana that I
patterned the Jefferson Club after,” he
says. “In some ways it was emblematic of
the excesses of that time, a
super-private ski resort for the rich
and powerful that cost millions to join.
I knew some of the wealthiest people in
the world stayed there, and I started
thinking, ‘What if a place like that got
attacked?’ At the same time I was
becoming convinced that people who were
very shrewd could manipulate the
financial markets. I put the two
scenarios together, and out came
Triple Cross.”
Mark T. Sullivan has written six
previous, critically acclaimed and
bestselling novels: The Serpent's
Kiss, The Purification Ceremony,
Labyrinth, The Fall Line, Hard News,
and Ghost Dance. The newest,
TRIPLE CROSS, is arguably
his most timely. Sullivan also considers
it among his best.
“I was as shocked as anyone who’s read
the book by the fact that the real stock
market crash of 2008 was caused in part
by some of the same risky financial
strategies and shaky business ethics I
describe in the novel,” Sullivan says.
“But at the same time, I felt vindicated
by the crash. Not only had I been right
about the tottering financial markets,
but I’d been right to sell every equity
I owned months before the bottom fell
out.”
Praise for
TRIPLE CROSS
"TRIPLE CROSS
is a smart, prescient thriller that
makes one wonder why the bottom really
dropped out of the stock market. The
story snaps and twists like a cracking
whip...I defy you to guess the ending. A
super-charged bestseller and surefire
motion picture."
- Robert Crais, author of
Chasing Darkness
"TRIPLE CROSS
crackles with tension and imagination
from the first page. A riveting
heart-stopping adventure. You're there,
amidst the action, feeling, hearing,
even smelling the tension. Well done."
- Steve Berry, author of The
Charlemagne Pursuit
Crack
TRIPLE CROSS
and get ready to drop off a cornice and
schuss the mountain at heart-stopping
speed. A real thriller with strong
characters, fast pacing, and suspense
enough for the most demanding reader.
Don't miss this one!"
- Douglas Preston, author of
The Monster of Florence and
Blasphemy
About the Author
Mark t.
sullivan
is the author
of six previous books, including the
international bestselling thrillers
The Serpent’s Kiss and The
Purification Ceremony, a finalist
for the Edgar Award. A widely published
investigative journalist and
entrepreneur, Sullivan lives with his
family in Bozeman, Montana.
Visit Mark's website
